Innovative Leadership; Creating space for growth and stimulating continuous change initiatives

"We used to write this down by saying, 'move fast and break things.' And the idea was, unless you are breaking some stuff you are not moving fast enough.

"I think there's probably something in that for other entrepreneurs to learn which is that making mistakes is okay. At the end of the day, the goal of building something is to build something, not to not make mistakes."

Mark Zuckerberg, founder and CEO, Facebook, from a 2010 interview with Business Insider

Innovative leadership is a risky business. It demands that you let go of tightly held beliefs about how leaders lead and move into an uncertain space where anarchy is anticipated and encouraged. It takes a bold leader with a strong vision and even stronger magnetism to achieve this and still thrive. Traditionally, strategic planning was an annual event in which the progress of the organisation was mapped out against a 10 year plan. Today 10 days is a long time in business. Technology no longer drives business but is a servant to the whims of a techno savvy workforce and client base. Social media has moved beyond the bounds of Facebook as a platform for global conscience and unbounded transaction. We need to redefine leadership in ways that make sense in the new world order. 

We live in interesting times.

Innovation requires a different kind of leadership and the kinds of leadership that the world needs today are fundamentally innovative. The issues that present themselves in terms of declining natural resources, changing climates, breaking down of barriers; political, geographical, gender-related, ethnic, social and technological, requires us to continually ‘break things’ and remake them in a different form.

The kind of leadership in which innovation thrives is one that embraces change, holds spaces for risk-taking and encourages big crazy leaps of faith. An innovative leader is a bold and often courageous leader, which is (slightly) different from a blind fold, though to the uninitiated the difference is not always apparent. An Innovative Leader is well-informed about a lot of things. What she doesn’t know, she hires someone to find out and tell her, or else she improvises. Improvisation is a critical skill of the innovative leader. Each day she sees as an opportunity to do things better.



“Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do”
Steve Jobs, co-founder, chairman, and chief executive officer (CEO) of Apple Inc.

Innovative Leaders create spaces for innovation, they allow others to experiment, to try things out for themselves and build their own skills and confidences. If necessity is the mother of invention, chaos is the mother of innovation; a problem needing to be solved, a crisis, a disaster. An Innovative Leader may at times be intentionally mischievous, create chaos, and shake things up a little, to get the best out of people and situations.

So what types of people make innovative leaders? Can anyone be an innovative leader? To be innovative, it is essential that you are flexible and open. Flexibility is the ability to shift your position, to adapt or to deconstruct completely in order to reform yourself into something more conducive.

Author name: Ineke Pitts

Official bio: Ineke is a highly experienced business consultant with over 25 years of international experience, predominantly in Business Strategy, Human Resources Management and Project Management. Ineke is also a specialist in Monitoring and Evaluation frameworks, has a Postgraduate Diploma in Business Administration and Development from Paisley University Scotland, is a Licensed Master Practitioner of the Neuro-Linguistic Programming Society and is currently studying for her Doctorate in Organisational Change with Middlesex University, UK. Ineke joined MDF South Asia as Branch Director and Senior Consultant in 2009, having been principal of her own management consultancy in the region for the last 10 years. She backstops a great many of MDF South Asia projects often working in Bangladesh, Afghanistan, India and Nepal as well as Sri Lanka. Ineke is ultimately responsible for the quality and consistency of all services delivered from the South Asia office and is also a senior resource person for MDF worldwide. A British National, Ineke derives great pleasure from combining her vocation for developing people, with an abiding passion for adventure, nature, fun and creativity, having previously spent three years searching for endangered carnivorous plants deep in the jungles of Asia.

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